By Proxy(18)

“You still have kin? In Choteau?” She was anxious to change the subject.

“Mmm,” he murmured, his breath coming out of his nose like smoke. “Kristian’s family. My aunt. She’s alone now. My uncle passed away a few years ago. My cousin Katrin still lives up there somewhere, too, but I haven’t seen her in years. Kristian and I were really close, more like brothers than cousins. Anyway, I am sure there are other cousins up there too; I just don’t know any of them anymore.”

“It’s not so far from here,” Jenny observed. “Five hours, I guess. More if there’s snow.”

“I won’t see them this trip.”

“Do you wish you were? Seeing them?”

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “I loved them, you know, when I was a kid. But, my life is very far away from here, Jenny. A whole other world.”

She held his eyes for an extra beat before dropping them and nodding that she understood. Whatever she was looking for wasn’t there, and she bit her lip with a fleeting, inexplicable melancholy as they started walking again.

***

Jenny was glad to be home, but it felt odd to have Sam accompany her to her small apartment, which hadn’t hosted many single men. She was acutely aware of him—of how his tall body took up most of her entryway, how his muscular forearms were freckled and corded when he pushed up the sleeves of his sweatshirt after handing her his coat. She could feel herself staring at him, so she spun abruptly, hanging his coat in the small hallway closet by the front door.

She needed a distraction. Coffee. I’ll make some coffee. She turned and he followed her into the kitchen. Casey wiggled her bottom back and forth wildly in her playpen, whining for attention.

“Oh, wow!” Sam walked right over to her and picked her up from her nest of shredded newspaper. She licked his nose and whimpered excitedly. “She’s beautiful.”

Then, to Casey, “Who’s a good pup? Who’s a good puppy?”

Jenny watched Sam with amusement, surprised by him yet again. Puppies were unpredictable and nippy, liable to piddle down your middle or bite your fingers with razor-sharp puppy teeth, but he had picked her up easily, gently, and now stood in her kitchen with Casey Mae cradled in the nook of his elbow, rubbing her bald puppy belly. Hmm. There’s more to you than meets the eye, Sam… Sam what? She still didn’t even know his last name!

“Sam, I don’t know your last name.” She looked at him, put four scoops of grounds into the coffee maker and pressed the ‘on’ button.

He grinned, still rubbing Casey’s tummy. “Kelley. Sam Kelley. Can you believe this broad? She’s going to marry me and she doesn’t even know my name!”

Jenny instantly gasped in victory and couldn’t help the giggle that escaped her as she turned to him, smiling with glee.

He snapped his head up from Casey and the look on his face said it all, but she couldn’t resist declaring a winner.

“You just broke our deal, Mr. Kelley.”





Chapter 4



Damn! She was right. He had slipped up and teased her.

“Oh, come on!” His face was a play in indignation. “I was talking to Casey, not you!”

“Fair’s fair,” Jenny responded in a sing-song voice, moving from the kitchen into the living room where her laptop sat on a coffee table in front of a cheery floral loveseat.

“Okay. Uncle. What’s my punishment?” Following her tempting body into the living room, Sam briefly fantasized about having his “punishment” in her bedroom. He’d let her do just about whatever she wanted with him. His heart kicked into a gallop at the fleeting fantasy and he shook his head, turning his glance back down to Casey.

Stop thinking about her like that!

Jenny sat down on the loveseat and pulled up her legs, crossing them Indian-style and shifting the laptop onto her thighs. Sam stared at her for a moment before telling his mind to quit looking at her lap

Quit looking at her altogether. Look somewhere else, damn it!

“Did you notice the big sign hanging over town as we strolled home?” she asked him with a grin.

Cute. “Yeah. Something about a Christmas Stroll? Want me to take you?” he asked hopefully, leaning against the kitchen doorway, cradling Casey.

“Why, Sam! That would hardly be a punishment,” she said, baiting him, dancing eyes daring him to contradict her. “I want you to help me set up the booth for my school tomorrow.”

“Does this require waking up early?”

“I’m afraid so,” she responded, grinning wickedly. “And some heavy lifting too. I asked my brothers, but they all work nights, so none of them was very excited to volunteer.”